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Two office employees collaborate at a workstation. One stands behind the desk looking at a computer monitor, while the other sits at the desk. Rows of desks, monitors, and office equipment fill the background.
Two office employees collaborate at a workstation. One stands behind the desk looking at a computer monitor, while the other sits at the desk. Rows of desks, monitors, and office equipment fill the background.

Talent Management and Development

At Delta, we equip our people with comprehensive training, development and mentorship opportunities to “Keep Climbing” in their careers. Through our commitment to fairness and accountability, we strive to create an environment where everyone can achieve their fullest potential. Our skills-based approach includes merit-focused hiring assessments; Talent Hub, our learning framework with upskilling opportunities; and the Propel Career Path Program for aspiring aviators, aircraft maintenance technicians, ground maintenance mechanics and flight dispatchers.

New in 2025

Launched Talent Hub enterprise-wide to better understand, develop and employ our people’s skills and to help employees position for career mobility.

Expanded Delta’s Propel Career Path Program to provide pathways to a career as a pilot, aircraft maintenance technician (AMT), ground maintenance mechanic (GMM) or flight superintendent/dispatcher.

2025 By the Numbers

78%

Of corporate and management jobs were filled with internal talent

32%

Of corporate and management openings filled with talent from frontline roles

5,796

New Delta employees hired and trained

5%

Attrition rate

22,652

Employees made lateral moves or were promoted internally

Delta's expanded methodology for 2025 incudes all roles for this metric, not just corporate office personnel.

10,485

Employees opted into development training

552

People completed our foundational leadership training, L365

Average Hours of Computer-Based Training Provided per Employee

This table illustrates the average computer-based training hours logged by employees per division by merit and scale in 2025. These numbers do not include in-person or hands-on qualification training and testing hours, simulator time and more.

AIRPORT
CUSTOMER
SERVICE		 CARGO FLIGHT
OPERATIONS		 IN-FLIGHT RESERVATIONS TECHNICAL
OPERATIONS		 CORPORATE
MERIT1 28 29 10 14 59 25 29
SCALE2 21 34 84 46 45 54 8

Skills-Based Approach to Talent

We embrace a skills-based approach to hiring and development, one that unlocks opportunity and empowers growth at every stage of a Delta career. By shifting our hiring focus to a deep understanding of candidates’ and employees’ skills and experiences, Delta is able to leverage our people more effectively and connect them to more personalized and relevant development opportunities that help them thrive.

To better understand, develop and employ our people’s skills and to help employees position for career mobility, we launched Talent Hub enterprise-wide in 2025. We continue to integrate Talent Hub into talent engagement and management programs and processes, including new-hire onboarding, VELVET and performance management.

We also continue to support our people’s interest in development opportunities. Our people used Talent Hub’s Learning & Development component more than ever in 2025, increasing by 15% over the prior year. In addition, 552 leaders completed the updated L365: Leading the Delta Way foundational leadership training program, which focuses on values-based leadership, building team culture, and driving individual and team performance.

Delta Talent Hub Connects Skills to Opportunity

Supporting our skills-based model, Delta launched Talent Hub enterprise-wide in 2025.

With this technology, we are equipping employees with an understanding of the skill sets that are critical for successful performance in their current roles, and the skills that will help them to be competitive for roles they aspire to. We are providing personalized learning and development recommendations based on the skills they have and the skills they want to develop. At the same time, Talent Hub provides business leaders and Human Resources with a holistic view of our employees’ skills, to support data-driven talent and recruiting decisions that build a future-ready workforce.

Hiring Assessments

To support hiring outcomes that maximize quality and equity, Delta employs skill-based hiring assessments and interview guides for scale, merit, individual contributor and frontline leader roles. All candidates must take an assessment, such as a Virtual Job Tryout, before being considered for a role.

Digital Upskilling for Product Innovation

To enhance the skills and competencies of our people in data- and product-related roles, Delta provides a learning framework that combines a tailored curriculum, on-the-job experience and mentorship. The initiative empowers our people in customer experience, data and business analysis, and project and product management. This helps to support innovation and agility, for an improved customer experience.

As of the end of 2025, we had upskilled 658 product owners, exceeding our goal of upskilling 185 individuals by 2025.

Opening More Opportunities with Propel Career Path Program

Launched in 2018, Delta’s Propel Career Path Program was the first pathway program among major carriers designed to help overcome barriers to entry to the pilot profession. Propel continues to be the industry leader in graduating the most participants from our collegiate and employee pathways to fly at mainline airlines.

Employee Pathways: Fueling workforce development and activating Delta’s commitment to career mobility for our employees, Propel has expanded to provide pathways to a career as a pilot, aircraft maintenance technician (AMT), ground maintenance mechanic (GMM) or flight superintendent/dispatcher. Delta supports employees selected to the Propel program by providing a multi-year leave of absence to train, a financial scholarship, loan interest coverage, mentorship and a streamlined path to their new role. Propel selected its first class of GMMs and dispatchers in spring 2026.

Pathways for External Talent: Beyond offering career tracks for Delta employees, Propel offers pathways for college students, certified flight instructors and referrals from key affinity groups who dream of becoming a Delta pilot. Participants selected for Propel enjoy a streamlined path from flight training to gaining experience at Delta's wholly owned regional airline, Endeavor Air, and on to a Delta flight deck.

Our Approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

At Delta, we believe that when we reflect and respect the world, we’re able to better connect and serve our global customers. This approach has been core to our business strategy.

Our performance is our proof. Operational excellence, business growth, talent retention, increased innovation, world-class reliability, and customer engagement, satisfaction and loyalty are the result of hiring the best, most qualified people.3 Delta delivers on its commitments by providing opportunities for all. Responsibly stewarding our resources means using them to create a world of possibilities and driving social impact for every one of our more than 100,000 employees to thrive, without regard to race, religion or gender.

At Delta, we remain committed to creating a world of possibilities where everyone, everywhere can thrive. This commitment is brought to life through the work of our people across the company, and our performance is our proof. From record-level employee engagement to being the most awarded global airline and delivering industry-leading profit sharing, we continue to see the impact of hiring the most qualified people who reflect and respect the world we serve.

KEYRA LYNN JOHNSON Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion & Social Impact Officer

To achieve equitable outcomes for all employees, we focus on several key areas:

  • Today, 11% of Delta employees are veterans, and veterans make up 7% of Delta leaders. We continue to provide veteran-specific resources for employment, health and well-being, and support the growth of our Veterans Business Resource Group, which already boasts more than 3,000 members.
  • We’re dedicated to being an industry leader in closing the gap between employees’ needs and the material security they deserve. We champion fair living wages and economic opportunities that ensure secure, stable futures for our employees and their families.
  • We are always hiring or promoting the best and most qualified talent. We aspire for our senior leadership team to reflect the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of our more than 100,000 employees.

Delta’s DEI Strategy

DRIVING SOCIAL IMPACT FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE TO THRIVE

ACTIVELY VALUING DIVERSITY

We actively value diversity by hiring the best, most qualified candidates with a variety of backgrounds and skills and supporting and uplifting our employees, customers, communities and business partners that reflect and respect the world we serve.

BOLDLY PURSUING EQUITY

We boldly pursue equity with an emphasis on the workforce, community and supply chain, creating fair and open access to opportunities for all.

CONSCIOUSLY PROMOTING INCLUSION

We consciously promote inclusion, building on Delta’s culture of listening and engagement to foster greater understanding and a sense of belonging for all.

Delta employees in uniform walk together through a bright airport terminal, pulling rolling suitcases, with large windows and natural light visible in the background.

Workforce Demographics at Delta4,5

Gender

42% WOMEN 58% MEN

Age

12% (1946–1964) BABY BOOMERS
 36% (1965–1980) GENERATION X  41% (1981–1996) MILLENNIAL 
 11% (1997–2012) GENERATION Z 


Race and Ethnicity

49% WHITE 27% BLACK 12% LATIN/HISPANIC 7% ASIAN 5% ⁶ OTHER

Veteran Status7

11% VETERANS 89% NON-VETERANS

OUR COMMITMENT TO EQUITY AND INCLUSION

We are working to achieve equitable, merit-based outcomes for all employees through actions aligned with our three DEI focus areas.

Focus Area Strive to Reflect the World We Serve

Delta aims to reinforce our talent pipeline by, among other things, expanding our recruitment efforts and seeking qualified interview panelists of various backgrounds and different experiences.

INSPIRING FUTURE AVIATORS FROM UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS

Each year, Delta invites students from underrepresented groups to come fly with crews in whom they can see themselves. In celebration of Girls in Aviation Day, we partnered with Women in Aviation International to host our ninth Aviation Women Inspiring the Next Generation Flight. A flight piloted, staffed and crewed entirely by women brought 140 girls ages 11-18 from Atlanta to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, to introduce them to careers in aviation and engage directly with women in these roles.

Another program, DREAM Flight, is a special charter flight featuring an all-Black crew that carries Black students from Atlanta to an aviation-themed destination each year in partnership with the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP). Since our first DREAM Flight in 2000, Delta’s partnership with OBAP has given 38 Black students opportunities to better understand pathways to aviation careers.

Read more on how we're supporting youth from underrepresented communities

Community

Focus Area Create Merit-Based Access to Career Pathways

We work to expand our internal and external career pathways and leadership development opportunities, in part, through our skills-based talent approach, which creates merit-based access to career opportunities by considering skills as equivalencies to education.

PROGRESS AND HIGHLIGHTS

  • Assigned talent acquisition liaisons to Business Resource Groups to advance our skills-based hiring strategy
  • Expanded our K-12 outreach in underserved communities to proactively address projected pilot and mechanic pipeline gaps

PARTNERING TO MATCH MILITARY SERVICE WITH DELTA ROLES

In line with our journey to expand our talent pipeline, in 2025, Delta once again partnered with the U.S. Army as part of its Partnership for Your Success (PaYS) program.

PaYS is a strategic partnership between the U.S. Army and select employers that connects enlisting soldiers and Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets to interviews and potential full-time jobs following their military service. Delta posts full-time positions to the PaYS database that match with the job skills offered by the U.S. Army, U.S. Army National Guard and U.S Army Reserve.

Focus Area Cultivate Leadership That Reflects Our Diverse Workforce

We aspire to have our senior leadership team reflect the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of our workforce. Delta encourages this by adopting recruitment strategies that seek the most qualified leadership candidates with diverse experiences, skills and perspectives and expanding leadership development programs to continue promoting from within.

PROGRESS AND HIGHLIGHTS

  • Included four historically Black colleges and universities in our recruitment efforts
  • Supported over 100 veterans through virtual and in-person sessions focused on helping them succeed in their first 90 days in civilian roles, and participated in job fairs to help military spouses find employment opportunities, reinforcing our commitment to the military community
  • Prepared our employees for key roles and future leadership positions through a variety of training and development programs
A Delta employee in uniform walks with a customer outside a Delta Sky Club lounge in an airport concourse.
  1. Merit contributors are paid a salary based on benchmark data from their peers at Delta and across multiple industries and are evaluated on categories spanning skill and experience to innovation and leadership.(a)
  2. Scale employees are paid an hourly wage while also receiving competitive pay offerings and flexible benefits driven by performance. They include pilots, flight attendants, maintenance technicians, customer service and reservation agents, baggage handlers and more.(a)
  3. Delta is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We are committed to compliance with all federal, state and local non-discrimination laws. Delta employment decisions are based on merit. Employment decisions are not, and have never been, based on quotas or set-asides. We provide reasonable accommodation in our application and selection process for qualified individuals with a disability, including accommodations related to compliance with conditional job offer requirements. As part of our commitment to transparency, and based on feedback from internal and external stakeholders, we publish our latest EEO-1 report, as submitted to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on our investor relations website.(a)
  4. Reflects demographic characteristics of our active domestic employees, expats, employees in U.S. territories and employees on Voluntary Unpaid Leave of Absence as of December 31, 2025.(a)
  5. Totals may not sum due to rounding.(a)
  6. The demographics present in Other Racial and Ethnic Groups: Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Two or More races/ethnicities.(a)
  7. Based on employees who have voluntarily declared veteran status.(a)